In Walmart By Myself

Yesterday after church I got to go to Walmart by myself.  Ava and Owen are up at my parents, and Chris and all of the babies decided to stay home and take a nap.  While a nap sounded really good, getting shopping done without any kids with sounded even better.  Pathetic?  Yes.  Did I want a nap?  Oh yeah.  But I want to get in and out of a shopping store without kids screaming and taking much longer than necessary more than a nap.  I am so sad.

People probably would have thought that I had never been in a superstore before.  I took a long time in each aisle I needed to go just because I could.  I swear to you, I spent 15 minutes in the band-aid aisle alone looking at all the different options.  Usually I just grab the cheap band aids with pretty pictures on them and call it done.  But this time I looked at things like butterfly band aids, and liquid skin, and the ginormous bottles of iodine which I had never noticed before, all of the above which would probably be good to have in our family.

I leisurely walked through the shampoo aisles and moved casually through the store.  Earlier this year I decided I wanted to try canning.  We make a ton of freezer jam every year, so I figure I should move into canning territory even though it kind of intimidates me.  Our Walmart has a canning section, so I looked at all of that glass stuff and didn't have to worry my kids' grubby hands would pull something off the shelf and create a mini emergency.  Plus, whoever designs Walmart must kind of be a moron, because I looked and looked for a pressure cooker which is needed to can meat and certain things.  I went up and down the canning aisle and the next aisles adjacent on either side and found nothing.  Eventually I found them over by the pots and pans.  What a dumb place to put them, put them with the rest of the canning items!  I never would have spent the time looking for it with all the kids.  I can just hear Owen asking if we're done yet.

When I realized that I had forgotten to get something on my list on the other side of the store, I just went back for it.  That is something I almost never do with the kids in tow unless it is vital for our survival.  Usually, I let it go until next time because it's just not worth it!

When I finally got home about 2 hours later, everyone was still napping so I had a few spare minutes to just chill.  Awesome.

Cloth Diapering

Aren't they all pretty lined up in a row?  Even though I shot in the shade and the flash apparently didn't go off?

We have great friends and family and they have so blessed us.  Last fall, they threw us a big diaper baby shower.  I just now ran out of diapers for Kembia and Truitt, I still have several boxes of size 5 for Moyz.  We were also gifted 18 cloth diapers, a combo of fuzzibunz and bumgenius. I told myself that when I ran out for Truitt and kembia I would switch Truitt to cloth.  And yesterday was that day.

Of course, I didn't realize that we were also out of wipes.  Oops.

Can I just say that the first moment I snapped one of those babies on Truitt I felt just better about diapering him?  He has such sensitive skin and somehow by basically just putting cloth on him it made me feel like a better mom!  On line it says that for one baby you need around 18 diapers, but I am already trying to figure out if I have enough to do Kembia too.  She doesn't go through a lot of diapers and I am hoping I can stretch between the two of them.  Truitt goes through quite a lot and I would love to not have to do a load of diapers every day, so we'll see if I can make this happen.

We definitely don't want to buy more because those puppies are like $20 a piece, and Kembia will be 2 this summer and sort of seems like she may be able to be potty trained sooner rather than later.  It's totally out of the question to diaper Moyz as well.  That kid, I swear he poops 4 times a day.  That is one thing that I don't really like about cloth, but am sure I will get used to- scraping the poop out of the diaper and into the toilet.  Oh well, just like wiping their butts, you get used to it!

Now I just have to wait for my wet bag from Amazon to come in the mail before I venture out of the house.  I don't really want to have to haul a dirty cloth diaper with me through a store leaving a lovely scent behind me for people to follow.  I'm already that loud family that people probably run when they see us coming, I don't need to be the stinky family too!

The Greatest Invention I Never Knew About

I was tempted to call it the greatest invention ever, but I think things like Cadbury Eggs and Nestle Quik in milk might be ahead of it.  

Here it is:

A shower curtain with mesh bags.  Stunning, isn't it?  And where have you been all my life?  I didn't know these babies existed until my little trip to Montana.  Where I immediately fell in love with it and today rushed out to find one.  (Walmart $14.96)

This is a life saver.  Along with the bottles you see hanging, there are several more around this thing that hangs from the shower head.  We have more bottles of miscellaneous shower crap than I know what to do with.  The babies have their own stuff, Ava has hers, the VO5 above to keep her from using my more expensive stuff (Herbal Essences, which isn't all that expensive but becomes that way when your daughter gobs it on!), Owen has special stuff he got for a present, and Chris has his own.  

Every time I give the babies a bath they think it is the funnest thing to pull all of the bottles down and play with them.  Not anymore.  

These are the things that make me stop and realize that I am getting older- excitement over a shower curtain with mesh bags.  I am the coolest.

I disappeared into La-La Land

Okay, so much for saying that I was going to blog regularly!  but I have a good excuse.  My cousin had a I baby, and my aunt works for the airlines, so Truitt and I went on a last minute trip to Montana and I just got back last night!

Plus, blogger changed while I was gone and it has taken me forever to figure it out.  Go figure.  I leave for 4 days and everything new happens.

Moyz and Kembia, praise God, haven't freaked out since I have been home!  They both said Mommy!  And then have been completely normal ever since.  One humongous positive note for attachment!  Bring on our 10 day canoe trip this coming summer because my babies are going to be fine!

I have to admit I was very nervous about how Moyz would handle my return.  I was expecting him to be excessively clingy, crying and really emotional, maybe even some of the opposite, ignoring me and being mad.  But he is just his regular old self, running around the house, getting into mischief and coming back for love.  He did learn how to climb onto the back of the couch while I was gone and stand there banging on the window.  And both him and Kembia have learned several new words while I was gone.  Plus my mother in law decided that she would "start potty training them".  Now don't get me wrong.  I am glad that she wanted to help out in this way, but I don't think they are quite ready, and really, at this point in the game it is much easier for me if they are in diapers.  I don't have the time to constantly put them on the toilet if they don't really appear to be ready, so I don't foresee me keeping up with this.  Maybe once they are officially two, which is still the end of summer.  Not that two kids out of diapers wouldn't be great or anything.

Ava had a deer tick on her, so we started yet another round of antibiotics for Lyme disease preventative.  I am really hoping for a vaccine for this so we don't have to continue this trend.  And I am so paranoid about Moyz and Kembia because trying to get through their hair to see if there are any ticks the size of pin heads on them is almost impossible, and how am I suppose to see a red bulls eye rash on their dark skin?

Truitt spins in circles, as opposed to crawling of any type or pulling himself up at all.  But I figure any movement works, he even sort of gets himself to move in a horizontal forward type way, because all of a sudden he won't be where I set him down, but I have yet to see how he inches himself forward.

And here are a couple of pictures from my trip:

This is Truitt and his new baby cousin who is 2 weeks old.  My son looks like he could eat her.

The Montana badlands.  My Grandpa thought that this was excessively dangerous and that the rock we are standing on was probably going to break.

This was just a fun shot to take at a National Park in MT.  Gorgeous place, kind of felt like the Grand Canyon but not as deep.  We made sure that no cars were coming and everyone stood across the road behind me taking the picture just in case a car came through, but none did because it's the wild wilderness!

Okay, now I for real promise to blog regularly!

A letter to my kids on a cold day

Dear Children,

When it is snowing out and I tell you to go downstairs and get dressed because we have errands to do, I mean to get dressed in seasonally appropriate clothing.  You do, after all, know it is snowing because you came into my room to wake me up and tell me so.

And when I mean get dressed in appropriate clothes, I do not mean a short-sleeve shirt with a puffer vest, capris and flip-flops.  Nor do I mean a tank top with surfer shorts and a jacket 4 sizes too big for you that goes down to your knees.  It is winter-like weather.  Hence the need for winter-like clothes.

Don't ask me if you can wear your new, oh so fashionable gladiator sandals that you just bought with your own money from your birthday.  I don't care if they are silver and match your mother's fingernails.  The answer is no.

Also, if you ask me today for the almost the millionth time if you can play with the water guns outside and "promise not to spray each other", I will probably go insane and then we will have some bigger issues to deal with.

Love,
Mom

A weekend away

Well, kind of a weekend.  More like 36 hours.  But it is without kids and without hubby.  And man, do I need it.

Three girlfriends and I are headed away, away, away.  I think that this is the first time hubby will be home with the kids by himself for longer than a day.  And you know what he said to me?  "It's going to be hard".  This was after he asked if I was taking Truitt with me.  Nope, I am not.  No breastfeeding, no come.

I might have said something under my breath about the several times I have been alone with the kids for close to a week.  But who's counting?  (3 times for a period of 5 days and longer....)

Trayvon Martin Thoughts

If just uttering his name doesn't send a bunch of thoughts through your mind, I am not sure what will.
I haven't talked about this at all because it has been plenty talked about so far, but I did want to mention a few things.  To be fair, I haven't followed the case exceptionally close because of our not watching any tv but PBS, but that doesn't mean that I haven't heard things or seen stuff when I pull up my home page on the computer.

So, these are my thoughts.

I am happy that Zimmerman is being charged.  Is second degree murder the right charge?  I don't know.  But what I do know in my own opinion is that he lost all rights to use the Florida kill in self defense law when he followed that young man, especially after being told not to.  And I am pro-gun rights, and pro-kill in self defense.  But he overstepped his bounds by chasing down a young man and shooting him on a sidewalk.  To me, it doesn't matter if Trayvon fought back.  What would you do if some stranger was following you with a gun and came upon you?  Chances are I don't think you would stand there like some moron, you would fight for your life.  Self defense my rear-end.  And even if Trayvon did fight back with Zimmerman, and may I say good for him, Zimmerman never should have shot and killed him, he was the instigator.

Do I think that the media has screwed a bunch of stuff up?  Yep, they created all sorts of problems by their coverage and the pictures they chose to use of both men for manipulation purposes.  Media will always sway something to get the biggest bang for their buck.

Do I think race is a factor?  You bet I do.  Given the US's history of racial issues, this was always going to be a factor, and a big one.  People who are trying to say this isn't about race are living in a nice denial bubble.

I hope to God that when my son reaches that age racism will be non-existent.  But I don't think it will be.  I do hope and want to believe that it will be a lot better.  Because here's the deal.  Everyone that I have ever met with Moyz in tow has thought that he is the most adorable child ever.  But some day, he will be a 17 year old black man, and his cuteness factor will long ago ceased to have existed.  I don't want that for my son- for him to be a suspect because he's black and wearing a hoodie, or black and walking through a predominantly white neighborhood, which lets face it, is where he lives right now.  Moyz gets to be raised in a white family and facing less racism and scrutiny while safely here with us.  But some day, he will leave our home to start his own, and he will lose all the privelages that society temporarily gives him by being raised in the white majority.

Ultimately, what the Trayvon Martin case boils down to is holding someone accountable for the terrible thing that has happened.  Take away skin color and all of the issues that everyone is trying to stir up, it is about the life of a young man being taken wrongly away from him by someone else, and Zimmerman should be held accountable.